The Most Vulnerable Victims of Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse happens when someone, like a medical employee in a nursing home, initiates physical or sexual contact with another without his or her consent. Most of the time, abusers do this because they know they can get away with it. But they shouldn’t, and you can help protect your vulnerable loved one in a nursing home by understanding the nature of sexual abuse.

Elders are physically and mentally limited, so they don’t have the capability to resist sexual abuse. There are also instances that the abuse has already taken a toll on them, so they could not communicate their situation out of anxiety and fear. These frailties make the elderly population the perfect target for sexual abuse.

We can even narrow down the perfect target. It is fair to say that women are generally considered to be physically weaker than men. That also means that they have less capability to defend themselves once sexual abusers make their moves. This makes elderly women more vulnerable to sexual abuse compared to elderly men.

Aside from that, we should also look into the credibility of sexual abuse accusations. It means that the more mentally impared a person is, the more vulnerable this person becomes to sexual abuse. They are the perfect targets because even if they communicate their situation to others, their accusations may not be considered credible because of their mental condition. There are well-documented cases of elderly women with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other forms of memory impairment suffering from sexual abuse in nursing homes.

The best way to fight sexual abuse in nursing homes is by knowing the signs of it. According to the website of Karlin, Fleisher & Falkenberg, LLC, your loved one may be a victim of sexual abuse if he or she has injuries in the pelvic area, trouble sitting, standing, and walking, newly discovered sexually transmitted diseases, or sudden changes in behavior.

If your loved one is showing at least one of these, especially if she is an elderly woman who is mentally impaired, be suspicious.